Not a Mustang owner, but "Hi" anyway!
10-09-2007, 09:01 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Posts: 3
Not a Mustang owner, but "Hi" anyway!
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rob, I live in the Hartford area in CT, and I’m not a Mustang owner. My daily driver is an ’03 Hyundai Tiburon GT.
It’s really only got a few light mods to help keep the daily commute interesting. I/H/E, a B&M STS, and a few barely noticeable visual mods to clean up the appearance a little.
A little pre-header engine bay photo for y'all.
Anyway, I’ve been lurking here for a while, mostly because I’ve always been a Mustang fan and just enjoy spending time drooling over ‘05+ GTs and ‘03+ Cobras. I admit I still occasionally engage in daydreams of having a black w/silver stripe GT making some serious power with a KB supercharger… [sm=drooldude.gif]
But I digress.
Recently I was fortunate enough to pick up a new project car. No, still not a Mustang, but at least it’s in the Ford family.
This is my new (to me!) 1969 Ford Torino GT. She’s got a 351W putting power down through a 3-speed automatic FMX transmission and routing it to the rear wheels though a Ford 9” rear.
I had been looking for a good project car for months with almost no success when I ended up taking a trip to Chicago for a weekend of visiting the old locales and seeing some old friends (I lived out there for a few years after college). While I was there I decide to check the local Craigslist just to see if there’s anything worth seeing, and I just happened to stumble across her. I drive to Minooka, I checked her out, and I was happy with what I saw.
Straight frame, no rust anywhere, recently (within the last few thousand miles) rebuilt 351W, All of the trim was there (except for the window trim on the DS door), and the only damage at all was a few small dents in the bumpers and a slightly banged up DS fender. The guy selling her was exceedingly cool about the whole thing, and in fact I felt a little bit bad about taking her away from him. He’d bought her a few years back from a guy in South Carolina and had all sorts of plans for a full restoration, but just couldn’t swing it anymore due to the cost of raising a family. He even gave me a concept drawing he’d done of what the car was going to look like when he was finished with it. As I said, I felt a little bad taking a car that he’d spent so much time dreaming about from him, but at least she’s been given a good home, and I’ve already started with some of the restoration.
My first step is going to be to replace the gas tank since it managed to get a bit banged up at some point and now leaks a little. After that, I figure I’ll be replacing the carb since it’s got what the previous owner told me is a 750 CFM Demon with no choke feeding a Windsor with a Weiand Stealth IM, a cam that was described as being “just a little bigger than stock” (but that sounds a lot more aggressive than that and has a hard time holding idle), and what look like stock heads. I figure I’ll go to a Holley 670 CFM Street Avenger, or maybe even a little smaller. It’ll be nice to perk up the low end a little, not to mention be able to hold an idle when it’s cold thanks to the Holley electric choke…
Once those two minor issues are out of the way I’ll get down to the serious stuff. I’m planning on starting with the interior, which, frankly, is trashed. New carpet, new headliner, a passenger seat, a pair of door panels, and we’re in business. Yeah, there’s more to it than that, but then, there always is, right? Once the interior is looking good I’ll start with the exterior, which isn’t really all that bad. All of the trim needs to be removed and polished up, and a few pieces will need to be sent out to get some pitting repaired when I get the bumpers taken care of, but aside from a few hours with a hammer carefully “massaging” the DS fender back to perfection, the only thing the exterior really needs is a few days spent getting the panels well aligned and a coat of paint. Not that the black primer doesn’t look badass in a rat-rod kind of way, but I have a vision of her in a deep green with black ’68 C-stripes and a flat black hood scoop.
I expect the basic restoration to take at least a year, although that number could change if quit my current job and start working for the State like so many of my peers have done. Less fulfilling, but damn is the pay good, yanno? Anyway, once the basic restoration is taken care of I figure I’ll start looking at more aggressive modding. Disc brakes (stopping 2 tons of metal isn’t easy on a good day), suspension upgrades, and all of the fun little performance upgrades to go from street to street/strip. Ultimately I’d like to either stroke out the 351W to 408 CID or just go big and put a moderately built 460 BB in there, but since I also plan on putting a TKO-600 in there with a hydraulic clutch, we’re talking long term plans here.
Anyway, don’t be surprised if you guys see me around the classic Mustang forums asking questions about the Windsor, looking for advice on building a bullet-proof 9”, or asking about any of the other many parts that are blessedly interchangeable between my Torino and the Mustangs. And if ya see me cruising the Berlin Turnpike during the nicer months, be sure to throw me a friendly rev.
It’s really only got a few light mods to help keep the daily commute interesting. I/H/E, a B&M STS, and a few barely noticeable visual mods to clean up the appearance a little.
A little pre-header engine bay photo for y'all.
Anyway, I’ve been lurking here for a while, mostly because I’ve always been a Mustang fan and just enjoy spending time drooling over ‘05+ GTs and ‘03+ Cobras. I admit I still occasionally engage in daydreams of having a black w/silver stripe GT making some serious power with a KB supercharger… [sm=drooldude.gif]
But I digress.
Recently I was fortunate enough to pick up a new project car. No, still not a Mustang, but at least it’s in the Ford family.
This is my new (to me!) 1969 Ford Torino GT. She’s got a 351W putting power down through a 3-speed automatic FMX transmission and routing it to the rear wheels though a Ford 9” rear.
I had been looking for a good project car for months with almost no success when I ended up taking a trip to Chicago for a weekend of visiting the old locales and seeing some old friends (I lived out there for a few years after college). While I was there I decide to check the local Craigslist just to see if there’s anything worth seeing, and I just happened to stumble across her. I drive to Minooka, I checked her out, and I was happy with what I saw.
Straight frame, no rust anywhere, recently (within the last few thousand miles) rebuilt 351W, All of the trim was there (except for the window trim on the DS door), and the only damage at all was a few small dents in the bumpers and a slightly banged up DS fender. The guy selling her was exceedingly cool about the whole thing, and in fact I felt a little bit bad about taking her away from him. He’d bought her a few years back from a guy in South Carolina and had all sorts of plans for a full restoration, but just couldn’t swing it anymore due to the cost of raising a family. He even gave me a concept drawing he’d done of what the car was going to look like when he was finished with it. As I said, I felt a little bad taking a car that he’d spent so much time dreaming about from him, but at least she’s been given a good home, and I’ve already started with some of the restoration.
My first step is going to be to replace the gas tank since it managed to get a bit banged up at some point and now leaks a little. After that, I figure I’ll be replacing the carb since it’s got what the previous owner told me is a 750 CFM Demon with no choke feeding a Windsor with a Weiand Stealth IM, a cam that was described as being “just a little bigger than stock” (but that sounds a lot more aggressive than that and has a hard time holding idle), and what look like stock heads. I figure I’ll go to a Holley 670 CFM Street Avenger, or maybe even a little smaller. It’ll be nice to perk up the low end a little, not to mention be able to hold an idle when it’s cold thanks to the Holley electric choke…
Once those two minor issues are out of the way I’ll get down to the serious stuff. I’m planning on starting with the interior, which, frankly, is trashed. New carpet, new headliner, a passenger seat, a pair of door panels, and we’re in business. Yeah, there’s more to it than that, but then, there always is, right? Once the interior is looking good I’ll start with the exterior, which isn’t really all that bad. All of the trim needs to be removed and polished up, and a few pieces will need to be sent out to get some pitting repaired when I get the bumpers taken care of, but aside from a few hours with a hammer carefully “massaging” the DS fender back to perfection, the only thing the exterior really needs is a few days spent getting the panels well aligned and a coat of paint. Not that the black primer doesn’t look badass in a rat-rod kind of way, but I have a vision of her in a deep green with black ’68 C-stripes and a flat black hood scoop.
I expect the basic restoration to take at least a year, although that number could change if quit my current job and start working for the State like so many of my peers have done. Less fulfilling, but damn is the pay good, yanno? Anyway, once the basic restoration is taken care of I figure I’ll start looking at more aggressive modding. Disc brakes (stopping 2 tons of metal isn’t easy on a good day), suspension upgrades, and all of the fun little performance upgrades to go from street to street/strip. Ultimately I’d like to either stroke out the 351W to 408 CID or just go big and put a moderately built 460 BB in there, but since I also plan on putting a TKO-600 in there with a hydraulic clutch, we’re talking long term plans here.
Anyway, don’t be surprised if you guys see me around the classic Mustang forums asking questions about the Windsor, looking for advice on building a bullet-proof 9”, or asking about any of the other many parts that are blessedly interchangeable between my Torino and the Mustangs. And if ya see me cruising the Berlin Turnpike during the nicer months, be sure to throw me a friendly rev.
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